Hard Drive Heat

[David P]

How hot are these things supposed to get? I just put my 2 Maxtor HD's into my new case, mounted atop one another in a drive cage. Even being in front of a fan, they're still very hot to the touch. One is a 6.4GB drive, and the other is a 1GB drive, so they're not terribly old. Should I split them up to two cages so they can breath more? Thanks

[MGP]

I usually mount my drives one slot apart when I have a 2 drive system. They seem to run a little cooler this way, but I've never measured the temperatures.

I have a 6.4Gb Maxtor too (don't remember the model #)... It runs hot, that I remember. Much hotter than the Western Digital and Quantum drives I have in my other systems. I think some drives just have more power hungry electronics on them.

Interestingly, the new Western Digital Expert Series 18Gb drive I just got runs cooler than any other drive I have. It doesn't seem to heat up at all and it's really quiet...